For years, the U.S. Energy Department's Gaseous Diffusion Plant at Paducah has been a major employer and a significant part of the western Kentucky economy. Revelations in recent months about the exposure of employees to radiation have been chilling, to say the least.

What's most frightening, perhaps, is the fact that the government has kept secrets -- dark secrets -- about the potential dangers to workers at the plant for so long. Even as information started coming out, each new and sometimes shocking revelation seemed to top the previous one.

Last week, regulators began investigating the possibility that the plant site included a dump for as much as 1,600 tons of nuclear weapons hardware. Even a health and safety specialist for the plant's operators said he didn't learn of this possible hazard until mid-January.

The folks around Paducah and across the nation deserve better than this from their government.